Chapter 22: The Count of Madness
"Are you alright?" The networm who stepped off the deck found Lothar in the dim candlelight, holding her knees and burying her head in it. She controlled her tone so that there was no extra sympathy and pity in it for fear of stinging the knight's pride. Of course, this is because she is too worried, and now Lothar has no strength to be angry, he is like a helpless child, just as he did when he learned that his parents had been killed. But this is not the time when the Count of Montenegro was not cared for by a faithful servant on the Damned Lady, nor was there a benevolent king who saved him from the royal capital day and night.
The horrific sight from the dream evoked the dusty and tragic memories of Lothar, who seemed to see his parents on the sand of bones, and they looked at the Count with hollow eyes, as if calling him to join them and become one of them. In reality, Lothar's side lay quietly on the deck of the tomahawk that had saved its master from circumstance and fear several times, the dark gray skin plated to hide its conspicuous gold appearance seemed to be its real shell, and the lion's eyes, which were obscured by the sea monster-shaped statue, had no sparkle in his eyes. The witch-hunting knife could do nothing, because what made its owner collapse was long beyond the realm of wizards and magic.
Seeing that Lothar did not respond to herself, the mercenary was silent for a moment before approaching the latter. She could see Lothar's slightly trembling arms, and he was genuinely scared. But why, was there anything here that could make the man feel intimidated? The networm came to the Count, got down on one knee on the deck, and put his palm on Lothar's hand. "Tell me, what are you afraid of? Let me help you?" she could feel the man's arm tremble even more as she said that. But in the end, the tremors calmed down.
Lothar looked up, his face frighteningly pale. "I'm fine, just had a nightmare. "Anyone can tell that the knight is just holding on, and the nightmare in his mouth is obviously not ordinary.
"When I was little, my mother told me it would be nice to tell my nightmares. The networm took the Count's hand in one hand and patted him on the back with the other, trying to remember what her mother had comforted her. And that was not easy, because in the mercenary's memory, her mother's existence was so far away that she almost couldn't tell whether it really existed, and she often doubted that all her memories of her mother might just be a warm dream, a longing for a normal family. But even so, if this false and most likely invented memory can help the man in front of him, the networm will not hesitate in the slightest.
Lothar sniffled, his eyes glinting with vague tears, and no one could have imagined that the Count of Montenegro, known as a war madman, would one day have such an expression. The Count opened his mouth to say something but failed because the muscles in his throat were too tight, he was frustrated by the frustration, but looking at the gentle gaze of the woman in front of him, he desperately suppressed the monster raging in his heart. Just like when he was watched by the king of the blue lion on the school field. "I, I saw..."
The Count's narrative lacks logic, and his words are filled with a lot of fragmented information, which makes it impossible to really understand what he sees. But even so, the horror revealed in those scattered words is chilling. The networm gently took Lothar into her arms, whispering comforting words in his ear, for she did not know why the Count had such dreams or how to deal with the situation. But what the mercenaries don't know may not be for others.
"Homecoming. Kiri's voice echoed through the cabin. The witch came in at some point. She sat on the wooden beam, shook her legs, and looked at the knights and mercenaries who were hugging each other, "The place you dream of is called home." ”
The eyes and attention of the two were quickly attracted, and Qili pushed hard with both hands, and the whole person fell from the wooden beam, landing on the ground with both feet at the same time, and stood firmly. She approached the two of them and continued her words, "This is the legend of the sailors of Heartless Bay. It is said that all people will go there after death to shatter the situation. The flesh rots in the coffin, the bones disintegrate in the wash, and then flow into the sea with the river or the groundwater, and finally flow to the destination, which is the beach of bones, which you say, and become a part of it. That's the part I know, and as for the stuff in the sea that you're talking about, I don't know. Maybe it's some kind of guardian home. ”
"But he'd never heard of this legend before, so how could he dream of what you said?" asked the networm, ignoring the unpleasantness with Qili on the deck just now.
"Well, I can't be sure. The witch put her hands behind her waist and circled the two of them step by step, with a shallow smile on her face, "But I think it has something to do with the dead crowd." It is said that the Dead Man Tide is a direct train to the destination, and perhaps our Earl has received some kind of revelation from the Dead Man Tide? ”
"I'm not crazy!" Lothar stood up with some excitement, obviously annoyed by Kiri's disapproval. But both the witch and the mercenary could see that the Count's eyes had lost their former sparkle when he spoke, and instead looked like a drunkard who bragged about being stabbed in a tavern, which was not what he should be.
The smile on Lothar's face disappeared as Kiri seemed disgusted by Lothar's reaction, and then looked at the Count with disdain and disgust for a few seconds, shrugging her shoulders, "Maybe." With that, her figure disappeared into the darkness that the candle did not illuminate. But Lothar didn't calm down, he turned to the networm and shouted, "I'm not crazy!" and punched the wooden pillar next to him, and the broken sawdust pierced deep into his hand, giving the blood a new direction.
The pain gave the Count's anger a pouring point, and he began to slam the wooden pillars with his fists incessantly, and the pillars used to support the deck erupted into clumps of sawdust with the full force of the knight's blow. Tears welled up in the mercenary's eyes, and she began to believe the witch's words, the man who called himself Lothar might have gone mad. So she approached the Count from behind and struck him in the neck!The man with a heavy blow to his trachea fell to the ground, and watched in disbelief as the networm knelt on his chest, and his hands grabbed him by the throat, strangling him unconscious.
The hatch to the deck, opened. Qili greeted the mercenary with a smile as if she had been waiting there for a long time. The latter unceremoniously rushed forward at great speed, and as soon as his arm was raised, the dagger in the shape of spider fangs was already against the witch's neck. "Tell me how to get him back to his original state. ”